PRC: Flunkers outnumber passers

August 06, 2009 08:15 PM Thursday [ journal.com.ph ]

By: Jeffrey C. Tiangco

EXTREMELY disappointing. This was the reaction of Commission on Higher Education (CHed) Chairman Dr. Emmanuel ‘Manny’ Angeles as results of board examinations administered by the Professional Regulation Commission (PRC) from 2001 to 2008 showed that flunkers outnumber board passers by as much as 64%.

Angeles lamented that these figures reflect the very poor quality of education in the country today.

To remedy the situation, Angeles revealed that the CHed has laid out an action plan to improve the country’s educational system and make the Filipino graduates more globally competitive.

One of the recommendations of the Presidential Task Force on Education is to adopt the “10+2+3 scheme.” This means 10 years of basic education, two years pre-university and three years baccalaureate.

Angeles added that college entrants should also be carefully screened and evaluated through the scholastic aptitude test or SAT.

“SAT will separate the chaff from the grain and to avoid square peg in a round hole,” Angeles said.

“Let’s face it, not everyone are qualified to enter college and get a four year course,” he said.

He added that the mismatch could be resolved if all high school graduates who want to pursue a college course must first undergo SAT on top of the National College Assessment Examination (NCAE).

“This will address frustration of graduates,” Angeles said.

Angeles lamented that it would take at least two decades of rehabilitation and improvement of the country’s educational system before it could be at par once more with the rest of the world.

To be able to do this, the CHed chair said that they would need additional funding and other resources to improve facilities, offer more scholarship to students and faculties and upgrade research and development capability.

Even Vietnam, Angeles said, has overtaken the country in some aspects in the educational system, particularly in terms of facilities development.

“At a minimum, at least two decades. Ten to 20 years to put our educational system in proper order. If we will not do something, we might even be overtaken by Cambodia,” Angeles said.

CHEd records show that out of the 2, 225, 571 examinees in PRC-administered licensure test since 2001, only 808, 884 or 36.35 percent passed the exams.

Among the PRC-administered exams are in Agriculture, Engineering, Maritime, Medicine-related, Sciences, Teacher Education and Business related courses.